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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2015 1:59:50 GMT
On the other forum there was a discussion on homesteading efficiently. What are you doing to make your homesteading efforts more efficient?
Here are a couple things I'm doing. I've always been a fan of edible landscaping. At least useful. I like pretty sure, but if I'm paying for it I want to be able to use it. So I have mints, lemon balm, lemon thyme, etc in my flower beds. I also have a 4' area between the coop and fence. So I built a raised strawberry bed and mulched a walkway. No mowing. Also I am in the process of building 4x4 raised beds in a side yard reducing time spent in mowing. Can you tell I hate to mow? Lol. Along my split rail fence I have grapes planted. I mulch plants to reduce weeds and watering needs.
In the house I try to plan my cooking. I turn the oven or stove off a cpl minutes early and let residual heat finish the cooking.
I know there is more I can do. What are you doing?
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Post by Callie on May 23, 2015 2:05:16 GMT
I keep my own set of tools in the garden shed (shhh....) so DH doesn't come and 'borrow' them until they are lost. This one thing has increased the efficiency of our Homestead 75%.
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Post by whisperwindkat on May 23, 2015 10:45:06 GMT
We have 3 barns, so I keep feed and hay in all three so I don't have to tote it around. During the gardening season I keep my garden tools and supplies in a corner of the garden so they are easily accessible. I learned to put things back where they belong. This one thing has saved countless hours and steps around the farm. Routines and schedules. I am a list kind of person we have a normal daily routine and then we have the seasonal chore lists. Having routines and scheduling maintenance projects saves us from those immediate emergency must do kind of things that interrupt everything. Only take on one project at a time and complete it before moving on. Hope that helps.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2015 11:00:02 GMT
I keep my own set of tools in the garden shed (shhh....) so DH doesn't come and 'borrow' them until they are lost. This one thing has increased the efficiency of our Homestead 75%. I do that, too!  I can never find stuff otherwise, because DH hardly ever puts things back where they belong. So after almost twenty years of trying to change him, I gave up and got my own tools. I keep it my secret where they are kept, or else they would disappear...  |
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Post by wally on May 23, 2015 11:56:37 GMT
Ladies, thats cheating. We always put stuff back when we are done.
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Post by wildhorseluvr on May 23, 2015 13:30:31 GMT
I keep my own set of tools in the garden shed (shhh....) so DH doesn't come and 'borrow' them until they are lost. This one thing has increased the efficiency of our Homestead 75%. My good friend who lives on a dairy farm has a DH and 3 grown sons who were constantly "borrowing" her gardening tools so she painted her wheelbarrow and tools hot pink. None of them will touch them now! I have my pink paint and am currently in the process of painting... |
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2015 15:15:16 GMT
On the other forum there was a discussion on homesteading efficiently. What are you doing to make your homesteading efforts more efficient? Here are a couple things I'm doing. I've always been a fan of edible landscaping. At least useful. I like pretty sure, but if I'm paying for it I want to be able to use it. So I have mints, lemon balm, lemon thyme, etc in my flower beds. I also have a 4' area between the coop and fence. So I built a raised strawberry bed and mulched a walkway. No mowing. Also I am in the process of building 4x4 raised beds in a side yard reducing time spent in mowing. Can you tell I hate to mow? Lol. Along my split rail fence I have grapes planted. I mulch plants to reduce weeds and watering needs. In the house I try to plan my cooking. I turn the oven or stove off a cpl minutes early and let residual heat finish the cooking. I know there is more I can do. What are you doing? Homesteading efficiently? That is what our homestead is all about. First of all, we have a small alternative energy system and have added to it little by little. We have a refrigerator that uses less power than my laptop. We use solar lights, solar flashlights and a solar battery charger to charge household batteries like AA, AAA and C. I play CD's on a portable cassette and CD player that uses the C batteries. We try to use electric items mainly, since our power is free, that is no cost. Kerosene lamps are no bargain and a lot of work. I was glad to see those things go. Our horses' manure we compost and use in our garden. My husband mows our yard with an electric lawn mower that he has been using since 2006. When he mows the yard, he empties the bag in the paddock for our horses (who get very noisy when he takes the lawn mower out!), so they get fresh grass. We buy hay for them, so during this time of year, the hay cost is lower. All that goes back into the compost pile and eventually into our garden. It is the circle of life. From the garden I harvest all that food that was grown in the raised beds that have the compost in them. Either I can that harvest or I store it whole in my root cellar. Our root cellar was put in this house when it was built back in 1850. It was built with efficiency in mind. The cellar is never damp or wet, even in spring. The house is built up on a hill so the water flows down away from it. I open the cellar window a crack at night to let the cool air come inside. The stairs from the cellar lead into the pantry which is connected to the kitchen. At night that door is kept closed. In the morning, I close the cellar window and open the pantry door a crack. This way the pantry stays very cool during the hot day light hours. We have many more plans for our homestead using natural energy sources. My husband has his mind set on GeoThermal heat, an electric car a riding lawn mower and solar collectors. He designed our system so when the batteries are charged, instead of dumping the load, the water heater would come on and heat our water. Right now that is not hooked up yet. "All to come soon".......he says. |
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Post by farmchix on May 23, 2015 17:08:46 GMT
In a word....Permaculture.
And...at the new place we will have his and hers barns. Gotta love that!
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2015 17:55:53 GMT
In a word....Permaculture. And...at the new place we will have his and hers barns. Gotta love that! What is the difference in his and hers barns? |
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Post by Awnry Abe on May 24, 2015 2:18:07 GMT
In a word....Permaculture. And...at the new place we will have his and hers barns. Gotta love that! What is the difference in his and hers barns? His barn has grease, hers has goats. |
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Post by Awnry Abe on May 24, 2015 2:30:30 GMT
When I think "efficient", my mind automatically gravitates towards time. I know efficiency comes in many other forms.
I have on my honey-do list the task of installing a dishwasher in the milk barn. To be fair, it isn't really a honey-do because I want it more than her, but she really wants one. Gallon jars traffic back and forth from house to milk room. The only reason they come inside is for a sanitizing trip through the dishwasher. The bottle assault on house is relentless. It will be so much more efficient to do the final wash out there.
We have been slowly moving our garden from up at the old homeowners spot to our new backyard. I installed a lake-fed hydrant for garden water last fall, right at the garden's edge.
Raised beds have made weeding easier.
On the non-time list: we graze our yard. We bought a feeder pig and feed him the excess dairy and poultry. All penned animal manure is harvested and then put into a second harvest of plant growth.
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Post by whisperwindkat on May 24, 2015 11:17:54 GMT
I agree with farmchix on the permaculture, saves so much time in the garden. I also have deep watering wells in the beds which means I water much much less often and use less water. In fact, I am able to use mostly the water out of the pond to fill the wells.
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Post by willowgirl on May 24, 2015 12:11:00 GMT
That's hilarious! |
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Post by Nette on May 24, 2015 12:34:18 GMT
Regarding the hot pink tools...I had the same problem with DH and the guys "borrowing" (taking?) my log chain. Then one day I found a blaze orange one at Lowe's. At least if it takes missing, I can find it easier. I wonder if log chains come in hot pink? Off to Google...
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Post by farmchix on May 24, 2015 13:39:43 GMT
In a word....Permaculture. And...at the new place we will have his and hers barns. Gotta love that! What is the difference in his and hers barns? His will have all of his welding, ironwork, woodworking, etc. tools. Hers will have her gardening, animal, etc. tools. No more having to move his stuff out of the way to find my stuff. No more of him rearranging my stuff to make room or to be helpful. Hers is a little OCD and has an "efficiency" to it not necessarily understood by His....LOL |
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Post by horseyrider on May 24, 2015 14:44:51 GMT
We just plain feel better when we're more efficient. It seems like the sensible option. I'm not crazy frugal, but I love it when I get value for my time and money. A few years back we finished up our solar panels. We now generate about 2K kwh more than we currently (ha! An electricity joke!) use. Last summer I bought a Stihl battery operated chainsaw, which is perfect for trimming, limbing, or taking down very small trees. I was so impressed with the power that I went back and bought the battery operated string trimmer and leaf blower. I love these very simple machines. I have no problem maintaining them myself. And since the solar panels make the electricity, the power is free. We collect leaves in the fall and run them through the chipper/shredder, and then deposit them on the garden. That, plus some well-rotted horse manure, is turned in to the garden. In the spring, the soil is light and fluffy. It's sort of cheating though; we have some of the prettiest black loam soil there is. I use the DR mower to mow part of the pasture, where it makes little wind rows. I collect the wind rows and they become mulch for the garden. The savings for watering and weeding pays off in huge time savings, as well as greater yield. The garden is largely the bio-dynamic French intensive method. Equidistant plants, spaced a little close, heavily mulched, equals greater yield per square foot. I can and freeze a lot of our food. We raise our own poultry, and are still working on a grassfed cow we got for a song in 2011. No sign of freezer burn; the processor did an exemplary job. I raise chickens and turkeys for eggs and meat, all organic. We're in the process now of replacing one of our freezers. It runs a lot, and while the electrical costs don't impact us, my concern is that it will die when it's full. So now is the best time to replace it, when inventory is on the lower side. I've picked a reasonably energy efficient model with a nice price tag. Last summer we invested in a whole house generator system. It will fire up and run the house, barn, and coops, within fifteen seconds of a power outage. No more sweating about the freezers thawing, or about the furnace not being able to run in the dead of winter, or about the stock tanks freezing solid. It runs on propane, but the peace of mind is worth it to us. Having to dink with a generator in below zero weather is just. not. fun. I set out eleven new fruit trees this spring, apples, peaches and pears. We have two mature apple trees left, but they're getting on in years. We have raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries, as well as rhubarb and herbs. In addition to canning and freezing, I use a dehydrator to dry some fruit and veggies. Root veggies and some apples are stored downstairs, some in with the furnace, and some in the root cellar. Like Katlupe, we have a root cellar that was built with the house, ours about 1870. It's bigger than I could ever fill, and is a masterpiece of engineering and simplicity. Honestly, for me, it was one of the big attractions to this house! It's underneath the house on the north end, and is accessible from either outside or inside. Such a nice thing at 11 at night in January....  My DH got his first Prius about ten years ago. He put 290,000 miles on it and decided he wanted another, but with more bells and whistles. Shortly after he got his, I got my own Prius. The savings on fuel is HUGE. I still have a pickup for hauling horses and other things, but the Priuses get the vast majority of the driving time. They've saved us so much money! When I was a kid, my father told me about some of the early studies on time/motion efficiency. I was enthralled with the concept! I've set up lots of things on my place with this in mind, including travel paths for chores, my kitchen, my closets, etc. Some applications save many minutes, others only seconds. But at the end of the day, they really add up. I try and keep my life as well as my cupboards organized, and this saves me time and aggravation too. Sometimes it even saves me money. I keep a bunch of lists for different stores as well as stores on my phone, so I don't ever have to go to the store, return home, and want to kick myself for forgetting something important. My days are often organized according to the weather. Nice days are for working outside; rainy days for working inside. Wind speed in my part of the country dictates laundry, as even though my dryer costs me nothing more to use, I love to hang my clothes out. I just don't like them to blow across the road! On hot days I work early and late, and take a long break to do something light in the middle. Cold days get inside chores early and late, with outdoor work in the middle. I share the need for my own tools with some of you! My DH walks off with things, puts them in weird, inexplicable places, or just plain lays them down to rust or get run over with the lawn mower! I find it funny that, when he found out I had my own basic set, he was offended when I wouldn't let him use them. Now, rather than just replacing the ones he's left out, I bring their rusty selves to him and watch his sheepish grin.  I'm borderline dorky the way I love the novel ways that efficiency is manifest. Makes me want to jump in and get things done! BTW, Katlupe and others that feed lawn clippings to horses, you may not be aware that this is generally not recommended. Why? Two reasons. One is that fresh grass clippings can mold with surprising speed. They heat up fast, and before you know it, there are mold particles the animals can inhale that you cannot yet see. Second is choke. This is when a horse gets a blockage of some sort of material in the esophagus, and they cannot get it down. Horses cannot vomit, so they can't get it up, either. They will drool and have their heads down and appear distressed, and sometimes food particles will come out of their noses. Sometimes they can stretch their necks out and down and move it themselves. Other times, a little ace will relax them enough to move the matter along. But sometimes it's a vet call and intubation with mineral oil. The most common things to cause choke are pelleted feeds, beet pulp, whole apples, and fresh lawn clippings. Greedy feeders do it the most often; but it can happen to any horse at any time. If you absolutely insist on feeding lawn clippings to horses, spread them out very very thinly on the ground so they're unlikely to mold, and the horse has to take some time and effort to get a mouthful. I think that's about it for me. But I bet I recall something else later. |
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Post by Maura on May 24, 2015 19:10:08 GMT
When we had sheep, we also grazed the lawns. We have a small, teensy, shed that had most of the fencing stuff in it, as well as halters so I could always find that stuff. What also made life easier is that I never chased livestock to catch them. I am the giver of hay and water and a little oats, so they come looking for a handout. They donkeys were also trained to a whistle, and the sheep would follow them whether I wanted them to or not.
At our new place I am creating an edible landscape, starting with the hazelnut bushes I’ve planted. DH does not want to bring the small greenhouse with us, But I would like to. Kale almost year round. Spinach through half the winter, tomatoes all finish ripening in the fall.
We still have lamb in the freezer. I don’t raise beef, but we have neighbors that do and I will be buying part of a steer this fall. Maybe a pit also, depends on if we get another freezer. I think buying meat this way (or butchering your own) is the best way to buy meat, especially if you can get pasture fed. Of course, sheep are raised on pasture, but many people will finish them on grain and ruin the meat. At least eating our own, we know they are healthy and raised on pasture.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2015 19:14:10 GMT
BTW, Katlupe and others that feed lawn clippings to horses, you may not be aware that this is generally not recommended. Why? Two reasons. One is that fresh grass clippings can mold with surprising speed. They heat up fast, and before you know it, there are mold particles the animals can inhale that you cannot yet see. Second is choke. This is when a horse gets a blockage of some sort of material in the esophagus, and they cannot get it down. Horses cannot vomit, so they can't get it up, either. They will drool and have their heads down and appear distressed, and sometimes food particles will come out of their noses. Sometimes they can stretch their necks out and down and move it themselves. Other times, a little ace will relax them enough to move the matter along. But sometimes it's a vet call and intubation with mineral oil. The most common things to cause choke are pelleted feeds, beet pulp, whole apples, and fresh lawn clippings. Greedy feeders do it the most often; but it can happen to any horse at any time. If you absolutely insist on feeding lawn clippings to horses, spread them out very very thinly on the ground so they're unlikely to mold, and the horse has to take some time and effort to get a mouthful. I think that's about it for me. But I bet I recall something else later. Thanks for the info, but our girls have been eating lawn clippings for years. They are eaten immediately, don't have time to mold here. All three are healthy, at close to 20 years old. |
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Post by mogal on May 28, 2015 14:06:08 GMT
Great thread!
Pink tools. My husband wouldn't mind a bit if it meant he didn't have to go find his own.
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Post by Rustaholic on Jun 7, 2015 11:43:48 GMT
Great thread! Pink tools. My husband wouldn't mind a bit if it meant he didn't have to go find his own. Yup and I would love to use them. They would be so easy to find. |
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Post by dw on Jun 9, 2015 21:21:41 GMT
The hot pink wouldn't bother my husband at all.
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Post by ketoriverfarm on Jun 9, 2015 21:25:05 GMT
The hot pink wouldn't bother my husband at all. Nor mine! Just as long as he can find a tool!  |
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Post by barefootfarmer on Jun 10, 2015 0:06:16 GMT
Having routines, making lists, getting maintenance done on a schedule so a small thing doesn't end up being a big thing, using the livestock to manage the grass and brambles, never having empty hands- if I'm going outside, there is always something that needs to be taken out. On my way back inside, there is always something that needs to come in.
My morning and evening chores take me in a loop, starting close to the house, working my way out to the farthest barn then looping back around. There is something to be done at points all along the way. This keeps me moving and I don't forget or have to make a special trip back out.
Using the right materials and doing it the right way the first time. That has saved me almost as much money as I wasted learning that lesson the hard way over the years.
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